In the midst of all the Chase drama this weekend was a story that went largely under the radar. The Arizona Republic reported on Saturday about possible changes coming to Phoenix International Raceway.
The article quoted PIR President Bryan Sperber as saying the track had put together a request for money to repave (the first time since 1993). In addition the article went on to talk about the possibility of the track adding progressive banking – something similar to what ISC did with Homestead several years ago – widening the track and opening up the turns. Any and all of the above changes could very obviously drastically alter the track.
Say what you will about the racing at Phoenix, I think anything other than repaving would be a mistake. The things that are great about Phoenix are all the things that are on that list for changing.
I like that everyone gets bottlenecked on the front stretch. And I like that turns one and two are different from each other and turns three and four are different from turns one and two. I like the weird shape and the flat surface. I like Monument Hill (not that this is going anywhere) and the dogleg. And I like the history of this great track. There’s really not much about Phoenix I don’t like.
I know ISC is considering making changes in the best interest of the track and by extension the sport – but it makes me a little queasy to think about them molesting this track to the point of unrecognizability.
And let’s be honest, ISC doesn’t exactly have the best track record of late for preserving historic race tracks. From the North Carolina Motor Speedway to Darlington Raceway they’ve managed to get rid of some great facilities, or diminish them. I just hope whatever they do decide to do doesn’t do that to this great track.
The end of the article quoted Tony Stewart and his feelings about the track.
They removed the Goodyear pedestrian bridge, and that was pretty historic. And what used to be a really cool, unique corner – the old Turn 2, where there used to be a gap between the end of that wall and where the wall to the dogleg along the backstretch started – that’s all been eliminated. I didn’t want to see those changes. And if more changes are coming, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to see them, either.
I couldn’t agree more.
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